The present invention relates to improvements for semiconductors, and particularly to compositions, kits, and preparations for providing a passivated semiconductor surface free of dangling bonds and free of strained bonds.
Dangling bonds and strained bonds are an inherent nature of semiconductor surfaces. Dangling and strained bonds cause a variety of problems in the fabrication of solid-state devices on semiconductor substrates. They are responsible for the high chemical reactivity of the surface by acting as reaction sites for chemical reactions and create surface states that cause the observed properties of electronic devices to vary from their design specifications. On a semiconductor surface, dangling bonds adsorb oxygen, water, or carbon dioxide, and a layer of native oxide is formed as soon as the surface is exposed to air. Thus, there remains a need to create a passivated semiconductor surface free of dangling bonds and free of strained bonds
Traditionally, the passivation of semiconductor surfaces has been realized with a thin layer of a dielectric, such as silicon dioxide (SiO2) or silicon nitride (Si3N4) prepared by oxidation, chemical vapor deposition or physical vapor deposition. Unfortunately, the thickness of the passivation layer is typically a few nanometer (nm) to a few micrometers (μm). As such, the semiconductor surface covered with a dielectric of such a thickness no longer behaves as a semiconducting surface, but an insulating one. Thus, there remains a need to passivate such a surface without changing the conducting nature of the surface.
Other methods that have been used over the years to attempt to reduce or passivate surface states on semiconductor substrates often impede the ability of solid-state devices to behave as they are designed. For example, an alternative method to passivate semiconductor surfaces, hydrogen passivation, often breaks down in air after a short period of time (minutes). This method relies on converting semiconductor-hydrogen bonds from dangling semiconductor bonds, but suffers from steric problems due to the fact that there is insufficient room to break up the dimer bonds and fully hydrogenate the silicon (100) surface. As a result, there are still surface effects that detract from the performance of any semiconductor devices ultimately formed on such a substrate.
With such problems, no current methods effectively suppress silicidation between silicon and metals or suppress surface oxidation on silicon. Therefore, there exists a need for an effective method of passivating a semiconductor while concomitantly minimizing any carry over effects from the passivation itself.